As you may have noticed I like to keep a list on this site of open source ios apps.

Earlier I received a submission of the url to an open source iPhone app that updates on what is happening at the US congress in real time, and provides access to data about members of the US Congress.

Politics aside, it provides an example of an app that retrieves and organizes data from an online source, and there is also a Phonegap version if you are looking for any html/javascript enthusiasts out there looking for a starting point trying to build with Phonegap.

You can find the source code for the newer native version here:
https://github.com/sunlightlabs/realtimecongress-ios

The source code for the previous Phonegap version can be found here:
https://github.com/sunlightlabs/real_time_congress-iphone_html

You can find the app on iTunes here.

I’ll be adding it to the list of open source apps soon.

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

For those unfamiliar with the term behavioral driven development testing (BDD) frameworks are used so that you can test applications using logical English like syntax.

I have come across an open source  framework designed specifically for iOS devices.   What’s cool about this specific framework is that it can easily be attached to Objective-C methods, runs in the simulator, and let’s you store your different stories in different files so you could easily demonstrate your software’s ability to cope with different scenario’s.

Here’s an example of the types of a story used for testing:

Story: Example story showing the basic syntax.
Given Simon is working
Then I should be able to see abc and 5 in the log and say goodby at the end.

The framework is known as Simon, and was created by Derek Clarkson.

It can be found on Github here:
https://github.com/drekka/Simon

UPDATE: Got feedback about another framework known as Kiwi you may want to check out if this interests you.

I had never used one of these frameworks before, but it looks like a great way to illustrate an app does exactly what it should do. HKSAB58YGFWN

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

Another excellent week to be an iOS developer, and some big news in the department of iOS game development with the release of  Cocos2D V1.0.0 and the opening of the Moai SDK beta to everyone.  Also some great open source libraries and tutorials were shared.

If you have written a tutorial, open source library or tool that you would like to share you can submit the url here.

I’ve been contacted a number of times about advertising on this site so I decided to add support for BuySellAds, and added a section for small button ads.  If interested you can check out the advertising page here.

Here are the resources from the last week in order of popularity:

Open Source: Easy Multistroke and Single Stroke Complex Gesture Recognition On iOS - A couple of great libraries if you are looking to quickly implement complex gesture within your app.

Open Source: iCade Library For Easy Integration In iOS Games - Library that allows you to easily support the iCade classic arcade box/controller for iPad.  Makes a good example if you are trying to support a specific bluetooth interfacing device.

Tutorial: Manipulating Images With Touch Gestures - A tutorial with sample code demonstrating how to add touch features for image manipulation.

Tutorial: iOS Map Kit For Beginners Guide - A getting started tutorial for those beginning with the iOS map kit including a tutorial on displaying data from XML locations on a map without using any libraries outside of those included with  the iOS SDK.

Open Source: Active Record For Core Data Library - A great open source project modeled after Ruby On Rail’s ActiveRecord for more straightforward data retrieval.

News: Cocos2D Game Engine v1.0.0 Released - News about the highly popular Cocos2D game engine finally reaching the v1.0.0 release.

Tutorial: iOS Multithreading With Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) Basics - An excellent step by step guide beginning with the basics on multithreading with iOS ‘s Grand Central Dispatch.

News: Moai SDK Game Development Kit Made Available To All - The lua based open source Moai SDK has now opened the beta for anyone to download and use.

Tutorial: Calculator App Style Glossy Buttons With Core Graphics - An explanation of the technique used to create buttons just like the calculator applications that come with iOS devices.

Tutorial: How To Use The iOS Keychain To Store Names And Passwords - A guide on using the iOS keychain in order to securely store usernames and passwords.

Thanks for reading, please bookmark and share this post!

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

The iPad has created quite a market for bluetooth peripherals and one of the coolest has to be the iCade.

The iCade is a mini arcade cabinet which you can fit your iPad within, and comes with a classic arcade style joystick, and buttons.  The iCade uses bluetooth so it can actually work with other tablets or even with your desktop.  I’ve almost talked myself into getting one by writing this article.

If you are unfamiliar with the iCade you can check out this video:

A pretty cool device, and at the cost of $99 you can imagine those using it are pretty hardcore iPad classic game enthusiasts.

Stuart Carnie has created a library for easy integration in iOS games, and includes a sample app.

You can find the project on Github here:
https://github.com/scarnie/iCade-iOS

You can check out the iCade on ThinkGeek here:
 iCade – Arcade Game Cabinet

The peripheral seems to have gained quite a following, and being able to advertise your game with iCade support might drive up it’s popularity.  Easy to do with this open source library.

[via Alex Curylo]

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

If you’ve ever wondered how to code gesture recognition for complex shapes I’ve come across a couple of open source libraries that should be a great deal of help.  This goes well beyond finger swiping.

This library is based on the $1 gesture recognizer which I remember being discussed quite a bit a few years back because not only did it run efficiently,  but allowed you define the templates to recognize complex shapes very easily.   The $1 gesture recognizer only recognizes 1 single stroke from the user.  The $1 gesture recognizer was later expanded on to become the $N multistroke gesture recognizer.

Brit Gardner has taken the $N gesture recognizer and created an Objective-C implementation of the code.

You can read about complex gesture recognition, and why Brit decided to use the $N gesture recognizer on his site in these posts:

Complex Gesture Recognition in iOS – Part 1: The Research
Complex Gesture Recognition in iOS – Part 2: The Implementation

You can find Brit’s Github for the Objective-C $N gesture recognizer here:

https://github.com/britg/MultistrokeGestureRecognizer-iOS

Adam Preble has created an implementation of the $1 gesture recognizer which can be found here:

https://github.com/preble/GLGestureRecognizer

You can try out the javascript versions, check out the full pseudocode, or download other versions of the gesture recognizers from the University of Washington here:

The $1 Gesture Recognizer
The $N Multistroke Gesture Recognizer

I’ve received e-mails a couple of times over the years asking about how some drawing games were created on the iPhone.  If you are looking to make that kind of game this should help give you a head start.

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

A few weeks ago I mentioned the Moai SDK.  An open source iOS game development kit allowing for development of iOS apps (and Android apps) in Lua.  What I really liked about the engine that it has already been used in could be extended to support any functionality within the iOS SDK.

At that time Moai  a limited beta, the beta has been extended now to support all developers.

In order to download the latest SDK release and the cloud services you will need to sign up on the Moai website for the dashboard here:
http://dashboard.moaicloud.com/signup.php

You can find the Github project for the Moai SDK Source here:
https://github.com/moai/moai-beta

The cloud services look great, and very easy to code – if you’re interested be sure to check out their 60 second tutorial here:
60 Second Moai Cloud Tutorial

There are numerous improvements since I first mentioned the SDK. Looks like the guys developing the Moai SDK have been very busy!

Read More: iPhone Dev News

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

Math parsing libraries can be extremely useful whenever you want to evaluate a complex mathematical expression.  In Objective-C you can use NSPredicate.  If you want to extend the functionality of NSPredicate however, this can be extremely difficult.

I came across a math parser that provides many advantages over NSPredicate, and other existing math libraries with in my opinion the key feature being the ease at which you can register new functions.

The library is DDMathParser from DaveDeLong.  The Github for the library can be found here:
https://github.com/davedelong

You can also read Dave’s extensive writeup on the library on his website here:
Parsing Mathematical Expressions

There are many other advantages of using Dave’s library over NSPredicate and other existing math parser’s in his writeup.

Looks like the right choice if you need to go beyond the default functionality provided by NSPredicate.

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

Received word about an interesting puzzle game  that has been open sourced.  It is currently available in the app store and runs on the iPhone/iPad (along with Android, and Palm versions).

What makes Orbium interesting is that this is actually an HTML5 based game, and the app store version runs through the Phonegap framework — and it runs well.  The game runs smoothly while animated and beautiful which really shows that the iOS devices and Mobile Safari have come a long way in running html5 apps.  There are quite a few games listed on the open source iOS apps list, but this is the first HTML5 based game.

Here’s a video of the game in action:

Because the game is HTML5 based you can test it in your browser here:
http://bni.github.com/orbium/

You can find the Github for the game here:
https://github.com/bni/orbium

The homepage where you can find links to the different versions available is here:
http://jsway.se/

Overall, it is interesting if you want some insight into HTML5 game development.

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

Communicating web services can be a pain on iOS.  Some of the Cocoa classes for web communication are not available which doesn’t help.  Fortunately there are a number of open source projects that have made things easier for communicating with web services in Objective-C.

One such project is Restkit, and what Restkit provides is a very high level framework for communicating with RESTful services.  Restkit works on the iOS and Mac OS X platforms.  What really makes Restkit different from the similar projects out there is simpler usage syntax, and direct integration with Core Data so you can easily persist remotely loaded objects locally.

There are some great examples on Git included with Restkit demonstrating usage with a message board built in Ruby on Rails, an example of how to communicate with Twitter, and a step by step tutorial demonstrating commonly used functionality.

You can find the homepage of Restkit here:
Restkit

The Github project can be found here:

https://github.com/twotoasters/RestKit/tree/master/Examples

Looks like a great framework for those looking to integrate Restful web services into their apps as quickly as possible.

Read More: Open Source iOS Libraries And Tools

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

It’s been another very active week for the site, and I appreciate everyone sharing the resources from this site.  It really keeps things going.  The community is getting more active, and there were so many great resources shared in the last week.

If you have a specific resource you’d like to share there’s two great ways to share them.. you can tweet them at me @maniacdev or you can post them on the iPad and iPhone Development Forum.

These are the top resources shared in the past week:

Latest edition here: iOS Development Resources

Tutorials: How To Create Great Looking iOS Apps Even If You Are A Design Noob – An excellent set of tutorials and guides from an app design expert for those without a design background looking to design a great looking and user friendly app.

Open Source: Libraries For Custom Status Bar Notifications And UIBarButtonItems – Open source project enabling customizable status bar notifications, overlays, and UIBarButtonItem’s similar to the Reeder, Evernote, and Google Maps apps.

Open Source: Generate Objective-C iOS App Code Using A Simple Domain Specific Language – An open source project that generates app source code from a very brief domain specific language.

iOS Beginner Screencasts – Xcode And Objective-C From The Start - A set of high quality screencasts for those who are absolute beginners to Xcode and Objective-C.

Open Source: Library With A Massive Number Of Useful UIKit Interface Enhancements – A very useful, and rapidly growing library of useful user interface enhancements.

Example Source Code: Face Detection And Augmented Reality – Source code from an upcoming book demonstrating face detection, and location based augmented reality.

Tutorial: How To Build An iOS Chat App Using Cocoa Classes – A step-by-step guide demonstrating how to use Cocoa networking classes such as NSUrl by creating a simple chat application.

Tutorial: Detailed Adwhirl Cocos2D Guide – A newly updated guide for those having difficulty integrating Adwhirl and Cocos2D.

Open Source: Beautiful App Sales Tracking Tool MyAppSales – A newly open sourced app with a beautiful interface, and extensive historical statistics for those looking to track app sales data.

Building An iOS App With Sencha Touch And Phonegap From The Start – A step-by-step guide starting at the absolute beginning for those looking to build an application with Phonegap and Sencha Touch.

Thanks for reading, please share this — you can use the buttons below!

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.